"Tears in Heaven" is a song by the English guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Clapton and the American songwriter Will Jennings, released on the soundtrack for the film Rush (1991). It was written about the death of Clapton's four-year-old son Conor.
In January 1992, Clapton performed the song in front of an audience at Bray Studios, Berkshire, England for MTV Unplugged, with the recording appearing on his Unplugged album.
Released by Warner Bros. Records, the song is Clapton's best-selling single in the United States, reaching number one on the Cash Box Top 100 and number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, and also charted in the top 10 in more than 20 countries. It won three Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Tears in Heaven" 353rd on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Writing
On 20 March 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, whom he had with Lory Del Santo, died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment belonging to a friend of Conor’s mother. After isolating himself for a period, Clapton began working again, writing music for the film Rush (1991). He dealt with his grief by writing "Tears in Heaven" with Will Jennings for the soundtrack. Clapton said he admired Jennings' work with Steve Winwood.
According to Jennings, Clapton wrote the lyrics for the first verse, and asked him to write the rest. Jennings urged Clapton to write the entire song due to the personal subject matter, but eventually agreed. He said it was "a song so personal and so sad that it is unique in my experience of writing songs".
Release
thumb|right|Clapton's C. F. Martin acoustic that he used to play "Tears in Heaven" live at [[Bray Studios (UK)|Bray Studios on MTV Unplugged]]
Shortly after the soundtrack was released, Clapton recorded the song in front of an audience at Bray Studios, Berkshire, England as part of a set for MTV Unplugged, released as Unplugged. The album topped numerous charts, including the US, Japan and Australia, reached number two in the UK, and was nominated for nine Grammy Awards the year it was released.
United States and Canada
"Tears in Heaven" is Clapton's best-selling single in the United States. With more than 2,800,000 copies sold – both physical and digital – it remains one of the best-selling pop singles of the 1990s and one of the best-selling singles released by any non-American artist. The Reprise Records single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts, where it was held off the number one spot by Vanessa Williams' single "Save the Best for Last" for four weeks and charted for a total of 26 weeks. It is Clapton's highest-charting single on the Hot 100 after "I Shot the Sheriff", which is Clapton's only Hot 100 number one single to date. After the physical single release was certified with a Gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on 18 March 1992, the single was still selling about 150,000 copies every week. The release also topped Billboard magazines Adult Contemporary chart, on which "Tears in Heaven" charted for a total of 30 weeks, The pop single also received a lot of airplay, charting 20 weeks on the Top Radio Songs chart, peaking at number three, and reaching position nine on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, where "Tears in Heaven" stayed for a total of 18 weeks. The 1992 single release was the 6th-best-selling single recording in the United States that year, reaching number six on the Billboard year-end Hot 100 chart and Top 100 Singles chart, compiled by the RPM magazine. In addition to the already rare success, reaching number one on both of the charts, "Tears in Heaven" was The Record magazine's top retail selling single release. In 1992, "Tears in Heaven" was the 17th-best-selling single on RPM magazine's Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. In Denmark, "Tears in Heaven" topped the single sales chart and was certified Platinum for sales exceeding 10,000 copies by IFPI Denmark, as it spent a total of 29 weeks on chart. and sold more than 170,000 both digital and physical copies to date. "Tears in Heaven" topped Shortly after, the single was certified with a Gold disc by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for sales more than 400,000 copies in the country. "Tears in Heaven" reached number 56 on Great Britain's 1992 year-end chart.
In Australia, "Tears in Heaven" was a hit record despite charting in the lower positions of the ARIA Singles Chart. In 1992, the pop Reprise Records single placed itself at number 102 on Australia's year-end chart. In New Zealand, the single topped the country's single chart for the first five weeks on chart, and spent a total of 18 weeks on the country's single sales chart. however, not enough for a quadruple Platinum certification award. and a rare certification for any physical single, as the world's best-selling single "Candle in the Wind 1997" achieved similar sales figures. --> Eventually, however, both songs would make it back into Clapton's regular setlists, with the latter being performed as recently as 2013, and the former in 2022.
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
!Year
!Ceremony
!Award
!Result
!
|-
|rowspan="6"|1992
!scope="row"|Billboard
|Best-Selling Soundtrack Single
|
|align="center"|
|-
!scope="row"|Golden Globe Awards
|Best Original Song
|
|align="center"|
|-
!scope="row"|MTV Movie Awards
|Best Song from a Movie
|
|align="center"|
|-
!scope="row" rowspan="3"|MTV Video Music Awards
|Best Cinematography
|
|align="center"|
|-
|Best Male Video
|
|align="center"|
|-
|Best Video from a Film
|
|align="center"|
|-
|rowspan="5"|1993
!scope="row" rowspan="5"|Grammy Awards
|Best Instrumental Composition
|
|align="center"|
|-
|Best Pop Vocal Performance Male
|
|align="center"|
|-
|Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television
|
|align="center"|
|-
|Record of the Year
|
|align="center"|
|-
|Song of the Year
|
|align="center"|
|-
|rowspan="1"|1994
!scope="row"|BMI
|Most Performed Pop Songs
|
|align="center"|
|-
|rowspan="2"|2004
!scope="row"|Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
|align="center"|
|-
!scope="row"|Rolling Stone
|The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
|align="center" bgcolor="#efefef"|#362
|align="center"|
|-
|rowspan="2"|2015
!scope="row" rowspan="2"|About
|Top 10 Best Songs of 1992
|align="center" bgcolor="#efefef"|#5
|align="center"|
|-
|Top 100 90s Pop Songs
|align="center" bgcolor="#efefef"|#81
|align="center"|
|}
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Chart (1992–2013)
!Peak<br/>position
|-
!scope="row"|Argentina (CAPIF)
| 1
|-
!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)
| 37
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Belgium (Back Catalogue Flanders)
| 10
|-
!scope="row"|Brazil (ABPD)
| 1
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Retail Singles (The Record)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Colombia (ASINCOL)
| 8
|-
!scope="row"|Denmark (Tracklisten)
| 1
|-
!scope="row"|Europe (European Hot 100)
| 3
|-
!scope="row"|France (SNEP)
| 2
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Iceland (IFPI)
| 1
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Italy (Musica e dischi)
| 4
|-
!scope="row"|Japan (Oricon International Singles)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|UK Airplay (Music Week)
| 17
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100
| 1
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Chart (1992)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)
| 61
|-
!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)
| 14
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Top Singles (RPM)
| 10
|-
!scope="row"|Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)
| 17
|-
!scope="row"|Colombia (ASINCOL)
| 5
|-
!scope="row"|Japan (Oricon Hot 100 Singles)
| 131
|-
!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)
| 87
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand (RIANZ)
| 6
|-
!scope="row"|Sweden (Topplistan)
| 86
|-
!scope="row"|Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)
| 38
|-
!scope="row"|UK Singles (OCC)
| 6
|-
!scope="row"|US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)
| 5
|-
!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100
| 12
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Chart (1993)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)
| 28
|-
!scope="row"|Ireland (IRMA)
| 47
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Chart (2007)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Taiwan (G-Music)
| 77
|}
Certifications
Other performances
In January 2005, Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne assembled an all-star cast to collaborate on "Tears in Heaven". Sales from the recording benefited the Disasters Emergency Committee's Tsunami Earthquake appeal and the tsunami victims in Southeast Asia. The line up included Gwen Stefani, Mary J. Blige, Pink, Slash, Duff "Rose" McKagan, Steven Tyler, Elton John, Phil Collins, Ringo Starr, Andrea Bocelli, Katie Melua, Josh Groban, Scott Weiland, Paul Santo, Robbie Williams, and Rod Stewart. Ozzy Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne also sang on the song.
See also
- List of Hot Adult Contemporary number ones of 1992